Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative Party treasurer, is a cheeky fellow. He has submitted a wonderfully ambiguous parliamentary question which has yet to receive a response.

“To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether [William Hague,] the Foreign Secretary, achieved all the objectives of his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Angelia Jolie.”

If there were any shared bedrooms, the public has the right to know.

End of a dynasty

Lord Balfour of Inchrye, who has died aged 88, will take his title to the grave.

The diamond historian’s father, the Conservative MP and First World War flying ace Harold Balfour, was awarded the hereditary peerage after he had been instrumental in the establishment of Heathrow Airport as under-secretary of state for air.

Ian Balfour’s stepmother was Mary Profumo, the sister of the disgraced cabinet minister John Profumo. After Profumo resigned and Lord Hailsham attacked his morals, Harold Balfour remarked on live television, “When a man has by self-indulgence acquired the shape of Lord Hailsham, sexual continence requires no more than a sense of the ridiculous.”

Ian is survived by his daughter, Roxane Balfour.

Let me in the Tardis

Bonnie Langford is angling after an appearance in the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who. “I’d love to make a return for an episode or so,” the actress tells Mandrake, who was a companion to the sixth and seventh doctors.